two barbed-wire fences and a pasture. Driving means maybe half a mile all total. My old bones don’t jump barbed-wire fences, and with hunnerd-degree temperatures, I damn sure wasn’t walking anywhere.” Sam was a short fellow who lived in bibbed overalls and boots, and Teresa could vouch that his hat was at least fifteen years old.
“We’ve got beer. Can or bottle?” Teresa asked.
“Ain’t nothing like a bottle.” Sam grinned.
“Miss Janie, can I bring you something?” she added.
“Cookies and milk, and bring enough for Sam,” Miss Janie answered.
Teresa went straight to the kitchen and put the old folks’ orders on a tray. Sam and his wife, Delia, had always been kind to both Teresa and Kayla as next-door neighbors. Teresa had always loved those two old folks for being so open and accepting when it came to them—Teresa was at least half-Mexican and Kayla was half-black. As she headed down the hallway to take a tray out to the porch, she smiled at the memories of them coming to Miss Janie’s to play dominoes or canasta on Sunday afternoons.
“Is part of that for me?” Noah asked as he stepped out of the living room and held the door for her.
“Nope,” she answered. “It’s for Mr. Sam and Miss Janie. She seems to be doing good today. She knows Sam.”
Teresa went straight over to the porch swing and stooped down far enough that Sam could take his beer and a couple of cookies. “How’s Miz Delia doin’?”
“Lost her to cancer last year.” Sam’s voice cracked.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she sat down beside Miss Janie and held the tray in her lap. “I didn’t know.”
Dammit! Every time she turned around, something emotional happened to put tears in her eyes. She reached up and wiped them away with the back of her hand.
What did you expect? the voice in her head chided. You’ve been gone eleven years. Babies that were born the year you left are almost teenagers, and folks have died. If you’d been coming home regularly, or even called Miss Janie once a month, you’d know these things.
“Well, honey, I reckon you didn’t get much news from home what with the way things are. When did you get back?” Sam turned up the bottle and gulped several times.
“Couple of days ago,” Teresa said.
“You should’ve been here the past two years,” he scolded.
“I realize that now,” Teresa said.
“Where’s Kayla?” Sam asked.
Miss Janie’s chin began to quiver. “I want my other child to come home to me. I can’t die until she’s here. I need to tell her how much I love her. You’ll have to go inside and see the babies before you leave, Sam. They’re beautiful.” She lowered her voice. “I think Aunt Ruthie talked to someone, because I got to keep them.”
“Ruthie can be a handful when she wants to be.” Sam chuckled. “My Delia and Ruthie pretty much ran this part of Texas when . . .” He stopped and bit off a chunk of cookie.
“. . . Still chokes me up to talk about them women,” he said when he’d swallowed. “They was both so happy when Janie came to live here. Neither of them had kids, so they kind of treated Janie like their own. Delia would’ve been lost without Janie when Ruthie passed on so young.”
“Hi, Sam.” Noah brought a beer out and joined them. “Think we’ll get a snow tomorrow?” he teased.
“Sure we will, soon as pigs sprout wings and fly,” Sam said. “We are goin’ to have a hard winter, though. Y’all can depend on that.”
“Kayla needs to get home before it starts snowin’ and winter sets in, Noah,” Miss Janie said. “You found Teresa, so you can find her. And I want to see Greta again, too.” Miss Janie picked up another cookie with one hand and the glass of milk with the other. She dipped the cookie into the milk and said, “I wonder if Maddy Ruth and Mary Jane will like to dip their cookies.”
“I’m sure they will,” Teresa said. “When they get old enough, they’ll do all kinds of things.”
“Like build a snowman,” Sam said. “How big was that one you and Delia built the winter that you came to live here?”
“Taller’n you,” Miss Janie giggled.
“That ain’t sayin’ much.” Sam laughed with her. “I should be gettin’ on down the road. I’ve got to pick up a few things at the feedstore for them worthless sheep I keep around the place. Y’all need anything?”